Stephen Sondheim Foundation Announces Inaugural Round of Grant Recipients

The Foundation has also helped create The Horowitz-Sondheim Clinic for Theater Artists.

March 19, 2026 By Andrew Gans

The Stephen Sondheim Foundation, established under the will of the late Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-lyricist, has announced its inaugural round of grants awarded to cultural institutions.

The four institutions are the Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, to support and expand its Core Writer Fellowships; Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, to help relaunch its SCOUT new play development program; Hudson Valley's Millay Arts, in support of its longstanding Core Residency program; and the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, to support the Hudson Valley organization’s summer Writing Residency program.

The Foundation has also helped create The Horowitz-Sondheim Clinic for Theater Artists at the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, which launched in 2025 and offers affordable treatment to theatre playwrights, composers, and lyricists. An annual gift will provide ongoing financial support to the clinic, whose name reflects the gratitude Sondheim felt for his psychoanalyst, Dr. Milton Horowitz, an NYPSI member.

Prior to his passing, Sondheim also directed the board to give a one-time gift to the Entertainment Community Fund, which was granted last year.

The Stephen Sondheim Foundation is dedicated to supporting playwrights, composers, and lyricists for the theatre, particularly those in the early stages of their careers, with funds generated from the royalty income earned by his works posthumously.

The cultural institution grantees were selected by the founding board of directors, close collaborators, and confidantes who were appointed by Sondheim in his will. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant proposals.

Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Sondheim, the most influential Broadway composer and lyricist of the last half-century, passed away November 26, 2021 at the age of 91. Among his groundbreaking musicals are Gypsy, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Company, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George, Assassins, Passion, Merrily We Roll Along, Follies, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and more.